The Girl in the Tower

Book Title: The Girl in the Tower

Author: Katherine Arden

Series: Winternight Trilogy #2

Date Started: December 28th 2018

Date Completed: January 3rd 2019

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Historical

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Five stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for this ebook for review ◆

I read The Bear and the Nightingale last winter and immediately wanted to go onto The Girl in the Tower, but the thought of having to wait more than a year for the final book was unbearable. So, I waited. And then this winter came around and I took the first opportunity to dive into this - and, believe me, I will not be waiting so long to read the final book when it comes out in a couple of weeks. This is a fairytale weaved so widely it becomes myth. It hovers and haunts you wherever you go, and becomes as familiar as the stories you were told before bed just because it has such presence, from the writing to the characters to the story.

There's so much bursting at the seams of these books; all these vibrant historical images that let the reader's imagination fill in the gaps (rather than overwhelming us with information). I'm not particularly familiar with Russian history, nor the culture, yet I can picture everything happening around Vasya; I can even smell the markets and feel the cold wind. You can tell that Arden is as in love with fairytales as Vasya is, and as the reader becomes. Sure, I've been in love with fairytales longer than I can remember, so maybe I'm a biased case, but it rekindled my love of them all over again and made me want to look into the fairytales of Russia specifically.

Really, The Girl in the Tower wasn't the book I was expecting to follow the last one. The first book was almost like an odyssey in itself, following so much of Vasya's childhood and her growth into both the 'real' world and the world of folklore and spirits around her. This time we get into the action and into her adventure. It was just as enjoyable, and it built so well on The Bear and the Nightingale that you have to admire that book all over again too.

One of the things we build on is the romance which, honestly, caught me a bit off guard in the first book. Which is kind of why I liked it so much. As it became a bigger part of the story in this book I fell in love with it more because it was done just right. It's nicely balanced - and weaves into - the main plotline, influencing our heroine's path. There are much higher stakes than just romance, as well, so we feel a weight to the scenes that are romantically driven. It's not there to be self-indulgent, it belongs as much as everything else does. But she is and will always be Vasya first.

And that's why I love the kind of feminism that Arden writes. Vasya isn't invulnerable or the token 'badass', but she won't be held down by what people demand she should be either. The period is managed well in that she is insecure about her femininity (and the 'wicked' connotations her actions have on it in the historical context), and she sometimes wants to give up being a girl altogether. Because wouldn't it be so much easier to be herself? Her actions and ambitions about be accepted if she were a boy. As it is, she would give up a lot for her freedom (love, family, security), and I don't think we see that a lot. In women, it's portrayed as selfish (yet, of course, men are allowed to do it all the time), and that makes it all the more powerful. It's a refuge to readers that don't have the words to say it for themselves. (And it's also then significant when she makes the hard decision to put her family or the spirits first because we know how much it means to her to have her freedom.)

The Winter of the Witch is only about two weeks away as I write this and it's too long. I need more Vasya in my life, I need to follow her story to its conclusion because these books make me feel like a child discovering fairytales for the first time again. There's a freedom in reading about heroines like Vasya, and I'm not sure I can wait around for much longer.